


Wrapped Up

by garrisonbabe



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gift Giving, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-22
Updated: 2013-05-22
Packaged: 2017-12-12 15:41:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/garrisonbabe/pseuds/garrisonbabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the end it was an even trade, both of them giving something irreplaceable to the one that mattered most.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wrapped Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RosieTwiggs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosieTwiggs/gifts).



It was an even trade in the end. Sure, Cas might have been under-powered, giving Dean literally the only thing that he actually owned, the only thing that was truly precious to him. Well, outside of the Winchesters, anyway. But somehow it seemed fitting, too. What with Dean giving up the amulet and all it represented. A memory of a distant past when Dean didn’t wake up unable to breathe and Sam didn’t look quite so haunted.

Truth be told, Dean didn’t have much in the way of precious things either, things he truly owned. The amulet, his mom’s ring, the Impala and maybe some guns he had a sentimental attachment to. But outside of that his lifestyle didn’t exactly facilitate collecting heirlooms. Not like Dean would have anyone to give them to anyway. When he finally died for good, that would be it.

The same should have been true of Cas, but it seemed like no one in their family stayed dead anymore.

So, when it came time to have something a little more concrete, some proof to both of them that it  _meant something_ , would always mean something… when that time came Dean slipped the amulet back off. Sam had grabbed it out of the trash way back when, hoping that one day Dean would forgive him and wear it. When didn’t Dean forgive his snot-nosed little brother?

Bronze glinted in the dingy light of a tiny motel room, promises made and fulfilled seeming to make things a tad brighter. Cas looked at him, confused and tired.

“Want you to have this.” Cas held it in his hand, squinting and staring like the little face might start talking and explain Dean’s insanity this day of the week.

The confusion only spread, his head tilting as he spoke. “But, Dean, it won’t find—”

“This ain’t about God, Cas.” Their eyes met and Dean tried to hold the blue gaze ahead of him as long as he could. No one else could look at him and look at him and just take him apart completely like Cas did. He didn’t give anyone else that kind of access, couldn’t afford to let himself be that vulnerable.

Finally, something seemed to click and Cas nodded with a ghost of a smile, slipping the cord over his head.

It was four days later when Dean woke up with the familiar feeling of a chain around his neck. He slapped his hand to his chest and groped around for the foreign object. When he touched it his hand jerked back, the metal was  _cold_.

A silver-colored feather sat at the end of a sturdy chain. The feather itself was maybe an inch and a half long and despite the fact that he was pretty sure it was new, made by Cas that same night in all likelihood, it still had tarnish in the grooves and curves. There were gaps in the metal, areas where a real feather would have been ruffled and parted. It thrummed in his hand, vibrating rapidly like a plucked harp string.

What really got him was the quill. It was bent into a circle that looped around the chain and up there it looked normal, but further down where the barbs were it glowed. The light it emitted was hypnotic and soothing, blue-ish white twisting like it was alive. Memories flashed of Anna breaking a glass pendant and Dean realized with a great deal of alarm that the light  _was_  alive.

Cas sat down next to him and Dean’s head snapped up to look at him. There was a soft grin on his face, pleased and proud. “I want you to have this.”

Dean shook his head, already in the process of shoving the shard of grace back to the angel it came from. “Cas you need—”

“This isn’t about me, Dean.” The words echoed back to another conversation about another necklace.

The feather rustled in his hand like it was being blown by the wind and when he looked down it was moving. His eyes widened and he glanced back to Cas a little frantically.

“Is this…” The questioned trailed off, he wasn’t sure how to word it.

“So long as I’m alive, it will be as well.” Along with being weird as all fuck, it was kind of comforting and sweet in its own way.

Dean laughed nervously and nodded, figuring that sort of deal sounded about right for his life. He slipped the necklace back on and pulled Cas to him, kissing him slowly. Words weren’t enough for the kind of love he was feeling. The intensity and the need to slow down and show Cas how much everything meant… there were no words for that. Not in any language Dean knew, at least.

The amulet brushed against the feather when Cas was inside him, clinking gently as they kept kissing and rocking into one another. It wasn’t the first time they’d done something slow and soft, more akin to making love than plain fucking. But it was the first time Dean could see the way Cas went wild beneath his own flesh. The feather twisted and frayed against his chest, squirming against his skin as the quill throbbed.

As he finished, digging his nails into Cas and growling out  _fucking love you_  like they were the last words he’d say, he could have sworn he felt it crack apart, reforming only when the man above him calmed and kissed him. Before Cas even had the chance to say it aloud, Dean knew. He had a living piece of the angel sitting on his chest. There was no way he  _couldn’t_  know Cas loved him back every bit the way he was loved.

In the end it was an even trade. A piece of Dean’s heart, hard to come by and treasured fiercely by those who had one and given in return a piece of an angel’s spirit. The quill would wrap around his thumb when he brushed over it reverently later and he thought there probably wasn’t a more perfect way to describe them. An angel and a hunter so wrapped up in each other on their way to save the world, one monster at a time.

**Author's Note:**

> Follower of mine on tumblr wanted a fic of Cas wearing the amulet and Dean wearing Cas' grace. I couldn't pass it up. Hope you like it!


End file.
